After seconding me on a large number of climbs over the last couple of years, it was time for my partner's first lead.
I thought we'd covered the basics and she set off up the crack. I could get a view of the first three pieces, a hex and two SLCDs, and they looked fine.
I couldn't see the top pieces, another hex and a #3 SLCD, from the ground.

When I got to the top SLCD, I was surprised to find she'd placed it 'sideways' with the cams vertical not horizontal in a vertical crack. It was jammed in pretty snug and one of the outer cams was bent.
Falling on such a placement could twist the SLCD and bend the cams in weird ways.
My friend explained she had 'summit fever' and wasn't thinking straight.

Never underestimate the number of ways inexperienced climbers can get confused.

On 8/04/2014 prb wrote:>After seconding me on a large number of climbs over the last couple of>years, it was time for my partner's first lead. >I thought we'd covered the basics and she set off up the crack. I could>get a view of the first three pieces, a hex and two SLCDs, and they looked>fine. >I couldn't see the top pieces, another hex and a #3 SLCD, from the ground.>>>When I got to the top SLCD, I was surprised to find she'd placed it 'sideways'>with the cams vertical not horizontal in a vertical crack. It was jammed>in pretty snug and one of the outer cams was bent. >Falling on such a placement could twist the SLCD and bend the cams in>weird ways. >My friend explained she had 'summit fever' and wasn't thinking straight.>>>Never underestimate the number of ways inexperienced climbers can get>confused.

In other words it was placed as a passive piece of pro?
Good thing BD cams like the one in the pic are rated as being capable of that, not that it came out of it too well, looking at it.

Yep, in my story above the cam was placed as passive pro by mistake. I guess with a crack that is wider than it is deep a 'sideways' placed cam could be an option if you had nothing else (I've never done it). But it would have to be with one of the smaller cams that are 'longer' than they are 'wide' unless you weighted the trigger!

Zamanov leapt up and swungójust as Schofield lunged forward, ducking inside Zamanov's swing arc, at the same time whipping something metallic from his borrowed utility vest and jamming it into the Russian's mouth!

Zamanov didn't have time for shock, because Schofield didn't hesitate.

He activated the mountaineering pitonóand turned his head away, not wanting to see this.

With a powerful the piton's pincer-like arms expanded, shooting instantaneously outward, searching for something to wedge themselves against.
What they found were Zamanov's upper and lower jaws.

Schofield never saw the actual event, but he heard it.

Heard the foul crack of Zamanov's lower jaw being stretched far further than it ever was designed to go.

Schofield turned back to see the Russian's jaw hanging grotesquely from his face, dislocated and broken. The upper arm of the piton, however, had done more damage: it had bruised Zamanov's brain, leaving Zamanov frozen bolt upright in mid-stance, the shock having shut down his entire body.

The Russian fell to his knees.

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So, obviously, the picture is what happens to a cam when a writer gets hold of it, turn it into a mountaineering piton, and then explodes it in a bad guy's mouth. After that, it probably fell to the ground from a helicopter in a controlled explosion or something.